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China Starts New Round of Talks with WTO over Membership
China and the World Trade Organisation opened a new round of talks Wednesday aimed at ironing out oustanding disagreements preventing the Asian powerhouse joining the influential commerce body.
WTO officials said the round, the 12th since China lodged its candidature in 1987 with GATT, the precursor to the WTO, was expected to go on for the next two and half weeks.
The Chinese delegation is headed by Deputy Trade Minister Long Yungtu.
The main sticking point to China's ambition is the lack of agreement with Switzerland and Mexico - the only two WTO members who have not concluded talks with Beijing on its entry.
A new round of Swiss-Chinese discussions are slated for next week in Geneva, and during a visit to Beijing Wednesday, Swiss President Adolf Ogi said: "We hope that with a little bit of flexibility and creativity, we should be able to conclude technical discussions at the end of the month."
Ogi, who was in Beijing to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, met with both President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji.
"We have every interest in arriving at a result fast," Ogi said.
He said outstanding issues include a Swiss request for licenses to sell insurance in China and a lowering of import tariffs on watches.
Beijing has already passed accords with 35 WTO members, including the two most powerful blocs, the European Union and the United States. These accords are later to be standardised, or "multilaterised", so that all 138 WTO members are covered.
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